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Invitation for Other State Agencies to Join IMERCIMERC invites additional states to become members of the Interstate Mercury Education and Reduction Clearinghouse (IMERC). The states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont created IMERC in 2001 to help them implement laws and programs aimed at getting mercury out of products, the waste stream, and the environment. The State of Washington joined IMERC in 2003, followed by Illinois in December 2004. California, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Louisiana joined IMERC in 2005-2007. IMERC is a program of the Northeast Waste Management Officials' Association (NEWMOA). When NEWMOA created IMERC they modified the Association's by-laws to authorize membership for non-NEWMOA member state government agencies that wish to join. IMERC provides:
NEWMOA's staff provides logistical, facilitation, and technical support for the activities of IMERC. IMERC facilitates deliberations that provide advice and assistance to the individual states for their decision-making. A state agency can benefit from participation in IMERC from:
Current IMERC activities include:
All IMERC-member states have an equal vote on the recommendations made by the Clearinghouse to the member states. All state representatives to IMERC are appointed by the responsible State Environmental Agency Commissioner or Director. IMERC currently has an overall IMERC Committee that consists of at least one representative from each member state. This Committee convenes via conference call on an as needed basis if there are issues or topics that the members would like to discuss. To date, this group has focused on new mercury-added product legislative initiatives that the states are interested in pursuing and developing a set of key outcome measures for states to use to demonstrate the impacts of their mercury reduction activities. This Committee has also focused on the compliance assistance efforts of IMERC. IMERC has also formed four subcommittees based on the types of requirements that individual states have enacted, including:
IMERC also periodically publishes IMERC Alert, which is an electronic compliance assistance bulletin that is published 2-3 times per year to inform manufacturers and distributors of mercury-added products and their consultants, lawyers, and trade associations about new mercury-added product requirements and key deadlines. You can see past issues of IMERC Alert at the following URL: www.newmoa.org/prevention/mercury/imerc/alert/. The text for IMERC Alert is reviewed and approved by the IMERC member states. In addition to this publication, IMERC staff addresses questions about state mercury reduction laws and requirements on a daily basis from the regulated community. Frequently, if there is a state specific question that the IMERC staff cannot address, they will refer the caller to knowledgeable individuals in the state for additional information or send them to the state's website. IMERC has developed and published on its webpage guidance documents for the regulated community on compliance with state mercury reduction laws. Periodically, with the oversight and assistance from the member states IMERC updates and revises these guidance documents. IMERC maintains an online database of information on mercury-added products that is based on the information submitted by the manufacturers or distributors of those products. The states have participated in designing and improving this important online information resource. IMERC welcomes the participation of additional states. Effective October 1, 2006, all non-NEWMOA IMERC member states that participate in the Clearinghouse pay an annual fee. Annual dues for non-NEWMOA member state membership in IMERC is $10,000/year. The IMERC fiscal year is on the federal fiscal year schedule, commencing October 1 of each year. Arrangement can be made for pro-rating dues for a partial year when joining IMERC. Any state agency who is interested in joining IMERC should send a letter stating its interest in joining the Clearinghouse and willingness to pay the annual dues to IMERC, c/o NEWMOA, 129 Portland Street, Suite 602, Boston, MA 02114-2014. For more information, visit the IMERC webpage at www.newmoa.org/prevention/mercury/imerc. To discuss IMERC membership further, call Terri Goldberg at (617) 367-8558 x302 or send an e-mail to tgoldberg@newmoa.org.
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Last Modified 12/20/2007
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